Nothing says "post-apocalyptic cyberpunk mercenary" like a bulletproof bed.  As this post on Switched.com points out, it's ideal for those of us who routinely bunk down in war zones.  I suppose it's easier to conceal from your neighbors than a bunker, but that's about its only selling feature.

Even assuming you have about 160,000.00 to spend on a bed--and what self respecting post-apocalyptic cyberpunk mercenary doesn't--it's not very practical.  The bed weighs about 2,000 pounds, which means it's hardly mobile.  If you want to sleep in it, then you have to sleep in the same place every night.  As fans of the post-apocalyptic genre know, mobility is the key to sustainability.  People who hole up in one place usually don't stay alive very long.  Terry Brooks makes the point, in The Elves of Cintra, that whatever safety a fortress offers is illusory.  The very walls you hide behind advertise your location to your enemy. 

Moreover, although the bed comes with a DVD player, PC hookup and microwave, it doesn't come with its own power source.  WTF?  How, exactly, do you power up these gizmos?  Assuming your current home is so war torn that you really, genuinely need to sleep in a bulletproof bed, and conditions are so unsafe that you can't even walk a few feet to heat up your canned stew, Con Ed probably isn't making a cameo. 

The chemical toilet isn't such a hot option, either.  I mean, come on--chemicals or no, its still a toilet and, in the long term, a health hazard.  Hell, in the short term.  And, do you really want to sleep with your head next to your toilet, night after night?  Come on, whoever designed this bed was on crack. 

Sure, bunkers are sort of outré.  And, if you build one, you're going to be "that" brother in law, the one your family loves but also sort of avoids.  But, when it comes to hardcore preparation, a bunker is the only way to go.  You need adequate storage and living space, way more than any bed--even one this expensive--can provide.  And, hey, if the apocalypse comes, you're going to become the belle of the ball really quickly.  You can tell them all, "I told you so" over canned stew.

Newsarama has an interview up with Terry Brooks concerning the upcoming graphic novel Dark Wraith of Shannara.

During the interview, Brooks also briefly discussed his plans for the Shannara series of books and his recent work at merging the worlds of Shannara and The Word and the Void.  There was also a brief mention of the status of the Elfstones of Shannara movie, for which Warner Bros. and director Mike Newell are seeking a screenwriter, and the rumored Magic Kingdom of Landover movie.  Brooks commented that the option to produce Landover runs out "later this year."

Via Fantasy Book Critic.

Speaking of George Martin, A Dribble of Ink put up a link last week to an article on A Game of Thrones written by up and coming British fantasy author Joe Abercrombie for SFX Magazine. 

The late Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney) was just inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors Hall of Fame.  Dragonmount has full coverage of the event, including complete video coverage via YouTube. 

In the context of speaking about the author Jordan (as opposed to the man Rigney), Mike Livingston, an English professor at Rigney's alma mater the Citadel, gave a stirring address about the fantasy genre ranging from its origins in medieval epics to The Wheel of Time itself.

Just to pass the word, Neil Gaiman's now-classic 2003 novel American Gods is available for online reading here.

Gaiman had offered to post the complete text of one of his books online, and allowed fans to decide which one by vote in an online poll.  American Gods won, apparently resoundingly.

You can read Gaiman's blog here, by the way.

When I started A Feast for Crows the other night, I felt sad. I love rereading this series, and it's always a bummer to realize that I'm coming to the end of it. For years now, I've waited for the fourth installment, A Dance with Dragons. George R. R. Martin is not, whatever else he might be, a speedy writer. He produces each installment with the slow, methodical deliberation of the three-toed sloth. However, considering that he's a genius, I can forgive him this.Now, as I delve into Crows once again, I'm considering the top 5 reasons why Martin is the preeminent fantasy writer of our time...

Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, died this morning.  Much more than just a visionary science fiction author--although he certainly was that--Clarke was a true futurist.  He gave us a glimpse of a brilliant future, one which undisputedly inspired some of the best scientists of our time.  Some people laugh at futurists, understanding them only as pseudo-scientists who waste our time with prophecies so impossible as to be all but meaningless.  What these people fail to grasp is that futurists hold scientific discovery in trust for us all.  It is they who give it its core, its heart, its moral compass.  Clarke, the best of the best, left us with a vision that not only inspired our minds but also shaped our future.

He created the concept of the communications satellite, he commented on the Apollo series of moonshots, he researched the dynamics of the Great Barrier Reef.  And, he did it all from a wheelchair.  Clarke battled Polio his entire life, first as a child and later as an adult.  He won his first battle with Polio as a child, but his enemy returned several years later in the form of Post Polio Syndrome, a debilitating chronic condition.  His physical trials, however, never dampened his optimistic spirit.  He continued to explore the world around him, from the deepest crevices of the ocean floor to the nether regions of space, sharing his observations as he went. 

We owe this wonderful man a huge debt of gratitude, not only for his incredible mind, but also for his generosity in letting others share in the beauty of his ideas.  Ninety years was far too short a time.  I hope that, wherever he is, he's still exploring.

Beloved British fantasy author Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series, was diagnosed last year with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.  The Guardian has a great story on Pratchett, how he's coping, and the news that he has just donated half a million pounds to the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

Pratchett seems in good spirits, however, and finds that one of the biggest problems he has is determining what is a symptom and what is plain old reality for a professional writer:

"When I was going in for the tests, they asked my wife and PA to say what they had noticed in my behaviour. They jointly wrote a letter saying, 'Like any author who's in the throes of writing a book, Terry probably shows all the signs of dementia: he's unworldly, he doesn't pay attention to things, he's antisocial, grumpy.' I'm a typical bloody writer. Maybe all of us have had Alzheimer's for years without realising it.

The Book Swede has a great post up about the use of magic in fantasy novels, specifically the recent trend toward epic fantasy that relies less heavily on magic as a plot device:

The move lately in fantasy seems to be towards grittier, darker works, with a lesser importance placed on magic. Take Brian Ruckley’s Godless World trilogy for example. Sure, magic users, the na’kyrim exist....The na’kyrim are dying out though, and a lot of modern fantasies have magic seen as a thing of the past -- of course, when a character who can do magic goes crazy, no one is prepared! The same goes with George R.R. Martin’s excellent A Song of Ice & Fire series, though there’s dragons in that, so an exclamation mark is obviously required!

Growing up reading fantasy books, the presence of some form of magic was always what intrigued me the most about the genre.  The Druid Fire and in-your-face sorcery of Terry Brooks's Shannara series appealed to me quite a bit, for instance.

Liz Rosenberg had it right when she wrote, in her 2003 review of Christopher Paolini's novel Eragon, that it's difficult to approach the book without certain preconceptions: the author's age is almost impossible to ignore.  The story is old hat to any modern fantasy fan: Paolini began writing Eragon, book one of the Inheritance cycle (of which Eldest is the most recent volume, with Brisingr set for a September 2008 release), when he was 15 years old.  Four years later, in 2003, the novel had been acquired by Knopf and Paolini became a New York Times bestselling author.   Needless to say, I was impressed before I cracked the spine -- thus the problem of preconceptions.

Eragon was published as a work of young adult fiction; as such, it's tempting to judge it by young adult standards.  Add to that the temptation to judge Paolini's abilities according to his age at the series' inception and one finds that the deck is heavily stacked in the author's favor before the reader even turns a page.  Trust me, I was tempted.  I was tempted to lead a proverbial parade in Paolini's favor, praising to the skies his nascent creativity and holding his story up as an example to America's troubled youth: Write!  Create!  Wallow no more in the television's equivocal glow!  But though the reading world may still view Mr. Paolini as a precocious teen, he is now 24 years old, an adult writing a teenager's story.  He still sees himself as a writer of young adult fiction, but his intelligence and the insightful manner in which he has been known to talk about his work demand a more mature critique.  With that in mind, I have chosen to give him no quarter.  I will review his work as an adult reader and as an artistic endeavor now continued by an adult writer, whatever his age may have been at the start.  Though I find Eragon itself to be above all a derivative work, so to speak, it is clear that Paolini's heart is in the right place.

In the spirit of the Bard's ongoing reviews of older works, let's take a look back at the book that gave Potter a run for its middle school money.

io9 has a great list of rules for writers of short stories/fiction.  The list is geared toward science fiction stories, but it could easily be applied to fantasy shorts as well.  For instance, the seventh rule,

Don't confuse your gimmick with your plot. You may have a great idea for a piece of future technology, or some amazing mutation that turns a whole bunch of people into musicvores who survive by eating your memories of rock concerts. Maybe you have the most original basic premise evar -- but that's not your plot. Your plot is how your new widget changes the people in your story, and how it affects their lives. Or what decisions your people make as a result of this new technological breakthrough.

could as easily be applied to magic in a fantasy story.  A cool magical ability does not a plot make.

Science Fiction Quarterly (SFQuarterly.net) is a brand new online science fiction magazine that is currently accepting submissions for its premier issue, scheduled for a March debut.  They are looking for short stories, reviews, and "think pieces" -- essays on the genre.  The magazine, in the classic sci-fi "short story tradition," is especially interested in working with new and inexperienced writers to bring their vision to publication.  The submissions guidelines are worth reading for any aspiring writer.

I emailed the editor, Glover Wright, and asked whether they were interested in stories in the fantasy genre.  He responded by saying that while they were not interested in straight fantasy, they would be willing to publish fantasy with science fiction elements and "fantasy that relies more on hypotheticals than, say, magic."

For aspiring writers in these genres, it doesn't get much better than an up-and-coming publication ready and willing to make room for new authors.

Be sure to read their blog for the latest news.

During a SXSW seminar in which he and Steven Johnson "laid out their agenda defending the youth of America as a sophisticated, information literate generation with the power for democratic change," Henry Jenkins described Harry Potter as an impetus for social good.  From the Guardian:

Did you know that Harry Potter is a source for social good? It has inspired fantasy fiction and role playing, but also political engagement, said Jenkins, talking about the Harry Potter Alliance which raises support for child-related issues like child soldiers in Uganda.

"The premise is that Harry Potter is a young man who stood up to want he believed in, and so young people inspired by Hogwarts can go forward and do things to try and change the world. In an information society, kids play with information. Young people as they become adept at processing this information will become a powerful social force."

The Harry Potter Alliance is "dedicated to using the examples of Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore to spread love and fight the Dark Arts in the real world."  They ask you to join them in creating "the real Dumbledore's Army."  Awesome.

I propose a vigilante group to be called the Night's Watch, whose mission shall be the quick and merciless tarring and feathering of violent terrorist leaders, who shall then be hung off the side of a glacier to cool off.  But maybe I'm missing the point.

Maybe Star Wars really is the ultimate metaphor for life.  Just in time for the upcoming election, you can now study The Star Wars Guide to the Candidates, which brings us enlightenment via Craigslist.  Yes, right alongside requests for group sex with donkeys and offers to sell pee stained couches, sits the definitive voting aide.  I think this says more about our political system than the popularity of Star Wars.  Or, for that matter, group sex with donkeys.

Believe or not, we at the Accidental Bard never played Dungeons and Dragons, but given its obvious relevance to fantasy fiction as well as our own (read: Jim's own) occasional former flirtation with Magic: The Gathering and occasional current flirtation with World of Warcraft, Mr. Gygax's passing yesterday was big news. 

The Time Out Chicago Blog has a concise, fitting farewell, and Wired a short summary of his life and contributions.

Seriously.  A while ago, I read a somewhat defensive explanation of the “Slash” genre, which is, as best I understand it, fantasy that involves gay characters.  The author mainly wanted to explain what Slash was not—and it struck me, who cares?  I mean, isn’t this focus on what can and cannot qualify as Slash sort of self defeating?  What, certain books aren’t gay enough, while other books are too gay?  Apparently, even in a genre where wizards, warriors, shapechangers, kings in disguise and even walking and talking trees are equally welcome, “gay” still means outsider and, therefore, requires a separate designation…

Sometimes reading fantasy has surprisingly positive results.  Fourteen year old Emma Peterson, a Junior Olympian and the top-ranked epee-fencer in the US in her age division, traces her initial interest in the sport to her love of fantasy fiction:

She came to the sport while still a student at Calthorp Elementary School. She had a writing partner to whom she would send letters anonymously. Professing her love for reading fantasy fiction that often told stories of protagonists wielding swords against formidable enemies, her partner suggested she learn to fence. Peterson came home that day and promptly asked her mother, Margie Peterson, what fencing was.

For those of you wondering about the rumored HBO production of George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, The Wertzone has a useful round-up of the official facts to date:

The deal for HBO to option the television rights to A Song of Ice and Fire was ongoing in 2006 and concluded in January 2007, when GRRM announced the news on his website. Subsequent blog entries confirmed that the writing of the pilot script had commenced. Prior to the start of the Writer's Guild of America Strike in November 2007, writer-producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had completed a pilot script which GRRM had signed off on. This script had been passed to HBO, who were considering it and running budget estimates for the series at the time that the strike began. As with all Hollywood television projects, work on the adaption was suspended until the strike concluded in mid-February 2008.

Essentially, since HBO's option has yet to expire and the writers' strike has concluded, there is still a very real possibility of it happening.  Wertzone goes on to describe the proposed scope of the project:

No final decision has been made but the tentative plan is for HBO to adapt A Song of Ice and Fire as a series of 13-episode television seasons (potentially seven seasons in length, one for each novel). Whilst the project would be high-budget, it would not be as expensive as HBO's previous major costume drama, Rome, and would probably be filmed in Eastern Europe or perhaps New Zealand due to the lowered production costs.

As always, take anything you read on the Internet with a grain of salt: although Werzone seems to have based their information primarily on official sources, nothing is official until you hear it from either GRRM or HBO.

Jack Priest is one of the coolest writers writing today, and Night Witch, his latest, gets a rare straight A from me.  So how come you have no idea who he is?  I’m about to tell you…

Vampires are sort of like blogs: everyone’s got one, but most of them suck.  It’s an easy plot device to fall back on, because it’s accessible; much like Superman, a vampire can do anything.  Greats like Bram Stoker and Anne Rice laid the groundwork by supplying us with a ready made concept of what vampires are; describing one, these days, is about as challenging as describing the color of your socks.  That is, of course, if you choose to rely on stereotypes…

While we're on the subject of "Urban Fantasy" (what I like to call Vampire Porn; see below), Robert at Fantasy Book Critic discusses the growing selection of Urban Fantasy novels available these days.  In his review of Mark Henry's Happy Hour of the Damned, he discusses what Henry has done for this popular sub-genre:

Conceptually, there’s nothing new about having supernatural entities like vampires, zombies, werewolves, and whatnot existing alongside humans and having their own hotspots in nightclubs and bars. Just read one of Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake novels for that idea, but Mark Henry does take it a step further with the aforementioned magazines, their own newspapers, a reality TV show—Undead on Tape—a spa, and even a 12-step group!

I can't believe writing about zombie spas is someone's job.

Parts of this book were like watching my cat suck his toes: morbidly fascinating, but not very interesting.  Until the last 50 pages or so, I had difficulty putting it down—even as I wished it were better.  Before I get into the meat of the review, let me point out that The Outlaw Demon Wails was only disappointing in relation to the whole of the series.  Since Kim Harrison debuted the Rachel Morgan series in 2004 with Dead Witch Walking, she’s impressed me as one of the best new writers working today.  Her realistic characters and original plots stand out in a field full of clichés, murky plots and archetypal characters.  However, for the first time, in the sixth installment, KH falters.

I was so excited when TODW came out, doubly so because I had the flu and couldn’t wait to entertain myself with Rachel Morgan’s latest exploits.  Since I had to stay in bed and read, anyway, I could find out what happened between Rachel and Ivy, who killed Kisten and what, exactly, was going on with the weres.  I’d been waiting anxiously for the answers to these questions for almost 12 months—and, to my mind, the fact that I left my sickbed to find them was quite an endorsement.  I’m a big fan of two genres, which KH melds well: supernatural detective adventures and what Jim refers to as “vampire porn.”  The Rachel Morgan series is, and despite this negative review, remains, the best of both worlds.  Spoilers after the break.

In the spirit of our continuing discussion of genre, Al Robertson writes about popular misconceptions of the differences between fantasy and science fiction over at his blog Allumination.  In response to the argument that fantasy is "innately conservative," focusing solely and often inaccurately on the past, while science fiction is progressive and real, Robertson writes:

Science Fiction can act as propaganda for science, but it cannot honestly lay claim to the realist authority that is innate in science. The fundamental aims of science – the development and propagation of an objectively true, reproducible worldview – are in opposition to the fundamental aims of fiction – the development and propagation of a personally true, unique worldview.

In this context, the claim that SF is superior to Fantasy because it is a more accurate reflection of the potentials and realities of the world is meaningless. Science can seed fiction, but it can’t (by definition) be fiction.

He goes on to bolster the importance of fantasy as a modern art form:

We live in a world where fantastic rhetoric is far more successful than scientific rhetoric. You don’t believe me? Watch some ads. Rooted in Surrealist shock tactics, the language of advertising is built on entirely fantasised imagery that presents individual brands as the kinds of crusading , transcendental superheroes that critics of Fantasy condemn. More broadly, check out modern political rhetoric. There, too, is fantasy; a conscious, ongoing project to present the world as politicians would like it to be, rather than to engage with it as it is.

Robertson concludes that fantasy, even more than sci-fi, is perhaps the more relevant response to the modern situation.  The entire essay is worth reading.

Via SFFWorld.com.

At the beginning of January Fantasy Book Critic interviewed Robin Hobb about her newest book, Renegade's Magic.  One of the more interesting things Ms. Hobb had to say therein concerned the writing of trilogies, an art she has personally mastered and one of vital importance to fantasy in particular:

Q: “Renegade’s Magic”, which was released via Voyager in the UK on July 2, 2007, is the third and concluding volume in your most recent trilogy (Soldier Son) and is finally making its US debut on January 8, 2008 (EOS Books). Compared to the other two Soldier Son books, what was it like writing “Renegade’s Magic” and how do you feel about the way you closed out the series?

Robin: For me, writing a trilogy is a single task. I break the manuscript into three publishable pieces, but I don’t really pause between books or see each piece as a separate entity. For that reason, probably the hardest task of beginning the third book was remembering that readers do experience a year’s gap between books and therefore plot points and characters should be re-introduced with enough information to either jog the memory or give the entering reader a place to start. Retreading ground without being obvious or boring is a really difficult task. I felt like the book ended pretty much as I had expected it would from the beginning, so that was satisfying.

For a writer of long fiction, be it trilogies or longer series, the need to catch the reader up eventually becomes a real issue.  Many authors struggle with how to do it effectively and whether to do it at all.  The late Robert Jordan once said that he had originally wanted his readers to be able to read The Wheel of Time starting with any of the books.  Although the increasing length and complexity of that series made it effectively impossible, it is nonetheless a vital question for writers of fantasy: how much can I rely on the reader to remember?  Do I have to summarize the events of the previous book for the readers of the current one?